The present invention relates generally to an improved tape-ribbon cartridge and more specifically, to an improved tape-ribbon cartridge adapted for use in a printing apparatus or composing system. The present cartridge has particular application in a printing apparatus or composing system having a cartridge carrier and in which the means for advancing the tape and ribbon past the printing station includes means for reciprocally moving the cartridge carrier, and thus the cartridge, toward and away from said printing station.
Ribbon cartridges such as those used in typewriters have existed in the art for many years. Many of these include only a supply spool of typewriter ribbon, while others include both a supply and take-up spool for the ribbon. They all, however, provide only a typewriter ribbon supply. None is designed to supply both a printing ribbon and the medium on which the characters or letters are typed. Thus, the advancement of the ribbon is not particularly critical to the spacing of the characters being typed. In prior art dry lettering systems, such as those illustrated and described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,834,507, 3,912,064 and 4,015,700 and pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 726,106 filed Sept. 24, 1976, in which both a printing ribbon and image carrying tape are used, the ribbon and tape are supplied from separate spools which are rotatably mounted and generally fixed with respect to the apparatus. None of the ribbon or tape supply means in any of these patents, however, shows the ribbon and tape supplied from a single cartridge. Some even fail to show any kind of tape or ribbon cartridge. Because of this, replacing supplies, ribbons and tapes in these dry lettering systems requires a reasonable level of skill and understanding of the equipment and takes valuable and otherwise productive time of the operator. Accordingly, there is a real need in the art for a printing cartridge which not only supplies the ribbon and tape in a dry lettering system, but which supplies such ribbon and tape from the same cartridge.